


Yes, I am.

by Mad_Muse_Musings



Category: The Shannara Chronicles (TV)
Genre: Episode: s1e6 Pykon, F/F, First Kiss, Fix-It of Sorts, Getting Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 14:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5970550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Muse_Musings/pseuds/Mad_Muse_Musings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the baths in Pykon, Eretria asked a simple question, "What's wrong, Princess, afraid you'll like it?".</p>
<p>Months later, when they have finally managed to get back to Arborlon, Eretria finally gets her answer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yes, I am.

Eretria went on the life threatening mission.

Eretria saved the damn tree.

Eretria made sure the princess survived and helped bring her home in one piece.

 

And upon their return from the epic world saving mission?

Eretria was put in a spare bed in Amberle’s room because the elves still weren’t sure she was worthy of anything as a human. Had it not been for Amberle’s protests and demands that she be permitted to stay with her until she figured out what she wanted to do, Eretria would have been out in the wilds trying to hunt down a band of Rovers so that she at least had somewhere to call home.

 

And Eretria wasn’t dumb, she knew if she had been in this position before everything had happened, she would be out in the wilds, but she supposed that almost dying with someone made you at least a little sympathetic to their needs. After all, none of them came back from saving the Ellcrys unscathed. Eretria had scars she detested, nightmares that she wasn’t sure would ever go away, and a chill that seemed to settle into her bones permanently.

 

But here she was, savior of the fricking world and she had to share a room with Amberle while Wil got a room all to himself because the elves had managed to find at least some trust for him, on the basis that he was half-elven.

 

Wil got it all from where Eretria sat. The girl. The life. Everything.

 

Wil got Amberle, even if they were distant with each other, Eretria was sure it was just for the benefit of the adults who would have lost their mind at the concept of them _being together_.

Wil got a home, a place to call his own and a place that he knew if he left, no matter how long, he would be welcomed back.

Wil got a family, he was welcomed into the fold of elves with no more hesitation than it took for the elves to process a thought.

 

And Eretria?

 

She got a temporary place to sleep until the elves complained loud enough that even Amberle wouldn't be able to shield her from their racist tendencies.

 

She helped save the damn tree! She had the scars to prove it. Wasn't that enough to grant her some kindness outside of Amberle and Wil?

 

Apparently not.

 

Which brought Eretria to the exact moment that everything changed.

 

The moment when she was tucked in for the night in the spare bed that Amberle had forced someone to bring into the room, where she listened to the way Amberle was breathing.

 

Eretria wasn't sure when she learned the different ways Amberle breathed, but she could tell you without a doubt that in that moment Amberle was nervous about something. There was this little hitch in her breathing when she was thinking about something way to hard.

 

When Eretria thought about that particular breathing pattern however, she could remember when she noticed it. It was in the bath, in the creepy elven fortress. When she got up in Amberle's space and had made her intention clear, this little hitch happened in her breathing. It was a small thing really, just enough to be noticed if someone was really paying attention.

 

Laying there in the dark, the only light provided by the moon that was streaming in through the window, Eretria could hear that little hitch as loud as if it was happening right in her ear.

 

Then came the rustling of the blankets and sheets, a loud sound cutting through the night as so many pieces of fabric and fur moved with the person under them. Catania had begun to poke fun at them in the mornings when she woke them for breakfast, they both slept under a pile of six or seven blankets and furs, but let the window open to let the breeze and smell of the woods seep in and lull them to sleep.

 

Eretria only dared to turn her head vaguely in Amberle's direction, not wanting the other woman to know she was awake and aware of whatever was distressing her.

 

But Amberle had other plans.

 

And honestly, Eretria had followed her from day one, so when the earnest half whisper of her name left Amberle's lips, Eretria did the sensible thing and turned over on her side. The action created her own ruckus of sound, disturbing the sound of the animals in the woods that helped lull them to sleep.

 

"What is it, Princess?" Eretria asked, most of the old teasing malice that had been present in the title had bled away with the shedding of their blood together on the fields of battle, but a hint of it remained, just enough to remind Amberle who Eretria really was.

 

"I don't know my line tonight." Amberle teased back, that telling hitch still there in her breathing.

 

"Well you started the conversation, so I doubt that's true." Eretria responded, moving her head just slightly so that the moon glinted off the metallic tattoo that sat at her hair line.

 

Amberle huffed and Eretria could just make out her biting at the corner of her lips.

 

"Well, I'm going to try to go back to sleep then." Eretria said when Amberle hadn’t broken the silence between them again for a few minutes, instead she chose to chew at the side of her lip in worry.

 

"Yes! I am." Amberle almost shouted and Eretria jerked in the bed, looking at the other woman like she had finally sold the last chicken on the farm and went certifiable.

 

"Yes, you are what?" Eretria dared to ask.

 

"Months ago, you asked me a question and I never answered. Now I'm answering." Amberle responded, the nervous hitch that had gone away with the outburst came right back when the words left her mouth.

 

"Alright, Princess. For those of us not in that head of yours, want to tell me what question it is you're talking about?" Eretria asked, pretty sure she knew what question it was, after all, it was the same question that made her notice how Amberle's breath hitches when she's nervous. But Eretria wanted proof that it was the same question. After all a lot of had happened to them out in the wilds, and she wasn’t about to charge head first into anything anytime soon without all the cards on the table.

 

"Come on, Eretria, I know you're not dumb, even though you like to pretend you are." Amberle replied as she wiggled on her bed, which made the blankets rustle and the frame creak.

 

"Well look at that, that was almost a compliment." Eretria responded with a grin that was just slightly feral.

 

"You're really going to make me say it?" Amberle asked, her eyes closed, uncomfortable with maintaining eye contact with Eretria for this, even if they were both straining to actually see the other.

 

"Yep." Eretria responded, popping the 'p' in the word harder than strictly required.

 

Amberle took a deep breath, the first of the night since they both crawled into their beds a little over an hour ago. "Yes, I am. I'm scared that I'd like it."

 

Eretria raised an eye brow at that and shifted on her own bed, creating a symphony of creaks where Amberle's bed only created a whisper of them in the room.

 

"Say something." Amberle begged, before she opened her eyes and tried to capture Eretria's eyes. "Please?"

 

"We're only a few months late." Eretria said with a tight, almost closed off chuckle.

 

"Please be serious about this." Amberle asked of Eretria. She sat up in bed, the blankets pooling around her and into her lap, the exception being an overly soft thing that sat on the top of the bed when it was made. That blanket wrapped around her shoulders, held by her thin fingers peeking out of the opposite edges.

 

Eretria sat up as well, which set off another symphony of creaks from the bed. "This is me being serious. I asked you that months ago, in the stupid elven fortress in those even stupider mountains."

 

"My answer never changed. I just didn't have the…" Amberle trailed off and tried to wave her hand around but really it just looked like she was waving her blanket around like Eretria imagined she may have done as a child, being carefree and silly.

 

"Have the what?" Eretria asked while she pulled at the blankets that had pooled in her lap.

 

"The courage?" Amberle answered hesitantly.

 

"You couldn't find the courage to say yes?" Eretria chuckled. Then the chuckle turned into full body quakes that made her fall back into the bed and roll around with the force.

 

"It's not funny!" Amberle yelled over Eretria's chuckles.

 

"It kind of is." Eretria responded as she wiped at her eyes to remove the tears that had escaped while she was laughing. "I mean, Amberle, come on. We were on a mission to save a frickin tree, and we were all pretty sure we were going to die before it was all said and done, and you couldn't find it in you to say, 'Yes, Eretria, I'm terrified I'm going to enjoy the way you stroke my lady bits'. I mean, that's pretty funny." Eretria made sure to swing her voice up an octave while she was impersonating Amberle.

 

Amberle rolled her eyes and proceeded to flop back into her mattress, turning her back to Eretria.

 

"Oh come on, Princess. Don't be such a touch me not." Eretria said to Amberle's back. "I wouldn't be me if I wasn't poking fun at you."

 

Amberle's response was muffled by both of the direction she was facing and the blankets she had pulled up to her chin, but Eretria strained her ears to make out the response. "I know you have to find the light side of everything, but can you just be serious about this?"

 

Eretria bit her lip while she let her options bounce around in her head. The first option, and the one she really wanted to do now that she knew that Amberle was interested, but scared, was to get out of her smaller bed and climb in with Amberle, and figure out what the problem was. The second option was to ignore the conversation ever happened, and that was probably the smarter option; she could get up in the morning and tell Wil that he needed to pay more attention to Amberle and that she was having a hard time coping with being back in palace and maybe he should suggest they share a bed.

 

Let it never be said of Eretria that she did the smart thing, not the thing that made her feel good.

 

So, Eretria shrugged her blankets off, and closed the gap between the two of them with yet another symphony of creaks from her bed as she left it. Then she climbed up into the much larger bed and slid under the blankets to plaster herself to Amberle's back, her left arm going around the tiny elven waist that belonged to Amberle.

 

"What are you-?" Amberle started but she cut herself off with a jerk when she realized the wonderful sensation on her neck was from where Eretria’s breath ghosted over the sensitive skin there.

 

"Making another stupid decision. I seem to do that a lot around you actually." Eretria responded while she turned her left hand over, an unspoken invitation for Amberle to lace their fingers together.

 

"Oh yea?" Amberle asked while she took the invitation and laced their fingers together, the moonlight fell on their conjoined hands, giving them an ethereal glow that neither of them were probably worthy of after all the things they had done. Only then did Eretria hear the small sniffle that came from the other girl.

 

"Hey, you weren't crying were you?" Eretria asked, pushing herself up with her free hand. She didn't have to wait for Amberle's response then, she had visual confirmation of how the moonlight created a terrible sparkle off of Amberle's tears. "Nope. I refuse to let you cry, I'm not equipped for this shit. Killing demon-fallen-druid things and saving the world via tree, totally equipped for. I think I might even have skilled up a few times while we were doing that. But dealing with the pretty girl crying? Nope. Abort mission. I require more training from those with far more wisdom than me."

 

"That was an old world joke." Amberle said with a chuckle.

 

"Got you to laugh didn't it?" Eretria responded with a smirk.

 

"Yea, it did." Amberle said as she turned over in Eretria's arms to face the girl who had decided to invade her bed.

 

"Good." Eretria responded, her happiness that she had managed to get Amberle to smile present, but tempered by the separation of their intertwined fingers.

 

Amberle smiled and hesitantly reached out to trace her fingers down the side of Eretria's face that wasn't pressed into the pillow. "I'm sorry I was so scared."

 

"I don't really understand that." Eretria admitted. "And I was sure you were really into Wil. In fact, I thought for sure you two were just playing at not being stupidly in to each other because we were back in front of royalty, and your uncles."

 

Amberle shook her head. "I told Wil, on the way back from The Breakline that I may have been in to him once, but that I wasn't anymore. He seemed strangely okay with it."

 

"Man, I'm so glad I went with the less smart option. But I need to understand why you were so scared." Eretria responded while she turned into a puddle of enjoyment under the soft touches of Amberle's fingers.

 

"We're coming back to that." Amberle said with a smirk.

 

"Yes, Princess." Eretria responded, fairly certain that when they managed to discuss that particular topic, it would result in stupid amounts of laughter from Amberle, mostly at her expense.

 

"Alright. Admitting deep dark fears." Amberle said with a huff while she wormed her legs together with Eretria's. "I think the main reason I was so scared was I've already broken so many elven rules. Even if they were unofficial ones. I've been doing it since I was little, sneaking out of my room to race the boys, learning to fight with a sword proficiently, things not fit for an elven girl, let alone one that's royalty. And all of that was okay before my father died. It was our little secret." Amberle's voice had grown tight at the mention of her father; it cracked and made it sound like Amberle was talking through a pool of quicksand that had settled itself in her vocal cords, weighing each word down with sorrow and loss. "He… The night he died, I ask him if the Ellcrys spoke to him, and decided that maybe it only spoke to women, since I was the first girl to ever get to touch it. And he gave me this idea, that when I got older I should run the gauntlet."

 

Eretria tightened her arms around Amberle, trying to provide the comfort she so obviously needed as she broke apart piece by piece speaking of the father she had obviously loved to the moon and back. 

 

"Running the gauntlet was another unwritten rule that I broke. Running was bad enough, but then I won. I beat out all these big burly elf boys, and I won." Amberle said with a tearful chuckle.

 

"'Big burly elf boys' she says like that's a thing." Eretria responds with a snort. "The biggest burly elf man I've seen is your uncles, and I'm sill pretty sure I could take one of them. Now that guard captain? I think she could kick my ass and I might enjoy it the whole time. I think you elf women are a lot more impressive than your 'big burly' elf men."

 

Amberle couldn't hold back the chuckle that made her whole body shake if she tried. "I'll let Commander Tilton know. She broke rules getting there too… She gave me my first sword and taught me how to swing it when I was like five. Maybe you've stumbled onto something."

 

"Hey, you’re the one that said I wasn't as dumb as I pretended to be. Eating your words now, Princess?" Eretria teased while she let her own fingers dance on Amberle's back, the only barrier between their flesh was the thin corset like wrap that Amberle couldn't seem to fall asleep without.

 

"No." Amberle said with a shiver. "I won't ever take back a compliment I pay to you." Again, Amberle’s voice had thickened with the emotions she was trying to contain, but this time, Eretria wasn’t sure what emotion she was trying to hold back.

 

Eretria grinned and proceeded to put more pressure behind her fingers, not quite kneading into the tender muscles of Amberle's back, but existing somewhere between that and feather light touches that did nothing but tease the recipient. "Continue with your story." She urged when after a few moments Amberle relaxed into the touch on her back.

 

"Okay. So I won the gauntlet, much to my Uncle Arion's irritation, and my Uncle Ander's joy, since he helped me train to run it anyway. But my grandfather… He never understood me, but that doesn't mean I don't miss him. Although knowing that his sister fought with him and Allanon in the war makes me want to punch him in the face a little bit." Amberle continued with a sad smile speaking of both her grandfather and great-aunt. "Then I touched the Ellcrys again, and it spoke to me again. When I ran the gauntlet it was mostly in memory of my father, but I touched it, and it gave me all these horrible visions. And I ran. I ran away like a scared little girl because I thought if I left I'd be able to prevent all of those things from coming true. That time I broke an actual law. The chosen aren't allowed to leave their post, and I didn't just leave it, I ran as far as I could. And I met you for the first time." Amberle's voice gentled at the end, her eyes shinned with mirth and happiness at the memory of Eretria trying to drug her in the small camp she had made for herself.

 

"So you break a lot of rules. I can't imagine the person you would be if you only did the things that your uptight little elven ways said you could do. Could you imagine what your father would say? What about Commander Tilton?" Eretria asked.

 

"I know my father would have been disappointed if I turned into this obedient little elf girl. And I don't really know about Commander Tilton… The night my father died was one of the last nights I talked to her as friends. Something happened and I don’t know what it was, but she was much more closed off after that." Amberle admitted.

 

"At least you know your father wouldn't have wanted you to be any different than you are." Eretria responded while she moved her hand off of Amberle's back and tucked the hairs that had started to fall into Amberle's face behind her ear. If she caressed the length of Amberle's elegantly pointed ear the whole way, well that was nobody’s business but theirs.

 

"You're right." Amberle admitted as she lifted her head off the pillow just enough to rub into the cool caress of Eretria's fingers on her overly warm ear. She teased Wil about his ears turning red when he lied, but her own heated up with just about every emotion she ever felt.

 

"Now, don't get me wrong, I'm very happy we had this little talk if it helped you, but you are developing a habit of not answering my questions." Eretria pointed out as she continued to let her fingers caress Amberle's ears. 

 

Amberle chuckled in response before she nodded and displaced Eretria's wonderfully cool fingers for a moment before Eretria could put them back. "I was getting there. Such an impatient rover. It's like no one ever taught you any manners." Amberle teased, the malice that used to be in the teases that she bit back are Eretria long gone, and instead they felt much like old friends teasing each other to both of them.

 

"Come on, Princess, just get to the frickin point." Eretria responded and pulled her fingers away from where Amberle was rubbing her overheated ears on them.

 

"Hey! Put those back." Amberle demanded.

 

"Only if you get to the point." Eretria replied and held her hand in front of their faces.

 

Amberle sighed and licked her lips before she finally set out to tell Eretria the final piece of the puzzle. "I'm the only heir to the throne past my uncles. I'm supposed to get married so that when it comes time for me sit on the throne as queen, I will do so with a king at my side, and princesses and princes running around at my feet and pulling at my skirts."

 

Eretria really wasn't as dumb as she pretended to be, and she slotted all the pieces into place to make the picture that provided Amberle's deep, core shaking, fear. "If you fall in love with me, you might as well put a sword in that picture and shred it to pieces. No king. No princesses. No princes. And to top it all off, a human woman to be your co-queen."

 

Amberle nodded and a few more tears escaped her eyes. The heavy drops carved a pathway down her face as they sparkled in the moonlight, over the soft curve of her nose and down her cheeks until they finally found their final destination on her pillow. "I've broken so many rules already, Eretria. I don't know if my family can handle me doing this too. And I'm as scared about it now as I was in the bath. But I've finally decided that if I can face off with a demon-druid- thing, I can face this fear too."

 

"Good." Was all Eretria said before closing the last distance between them.

 

Their first kiss wasn't some magical event that shook the world, but it was magical to the two of them. For the first time since they met, Amberle was comfortable to let Eretria take the lead. Eretria was careful not to be too forceful with her kiss, and it ultimately ended up being just the lightest touch of their chapped lips together. But that light pass of a kiss awoke something in Amberle, and the next thing Eretria was flat on her back with Amberle above her, long dark brown waves of hair creating a curtain around.

 

"Was that not enough for you, Princess?" Eretria asked while she looked up into Amberle's eyes.

 

"You are a terrible tease." Amberle responded before she leaned down and captured Eretria's lips with her own much more forceful kiss. This kiss was full of promise of what they would be over the other side of the light. Rough lips met with nothing short of extreme enthusiasm as they got their first real taste of each other.

 

When the broke apart, the room echoed with their pants, as they tried to get a handle on themselves. Amberle stayed on top of Eretria, her knees and hands held her up, while Eretria framed the lithe elven waist with her knees, feet planted flat on the bed now, and attempted to untangle her fingers from Amberle's hair.

 

"That was…" Eretria trailed off as she touched her finger tips to her lips with the hand she had managed to removed from Amberle's hair.

 

"Yea." Amberle breathed out.

 

"Any regrets so far?" Eretria asked.

 

"You'll have to ask again in the morning when Catania comes to wake me and finds you tangled up in my bed and the whole palace knows before breakfast that the princess is sleeping with a human woman." Amberle answered as she tumbled to the side to lay next to Eretria on the bed, her voice doing it's best to sound scandalous at the idea.

 

"So I get to sleep with you before the first meal together with intentions? Maybe I can turn you into a rover yet, your highness." Eretria said and wiggled her eye brows. A beat later, she snorted and looked over at Amberle. "Man, I can't believe I haven't used that one yet. Your Highness. Your highn-ess. God that's gold."

 

"No, you do not get to _sleep_ with me tonight, you dirty girl. And that is terrible. You should feel terrible for that one." Amberle said with a smile that reached her eyes for the first time since they returned from that journey.

 

"Nope. No shame here." Eretria said with a grin that matched Amberle watt for watt.

 

"We'll see in the morning." Amberle replied before she curled up against Eretria's side, her arms wrapped around her new bed mate. "But I don't think I'll have any regrets then."

 

Eretria's smile would have gotten wider if it was possible, but the muscles in her face had already begun to protest at the wide smile she wore. "Good. No regrets here either."


End file.
